Sen. John Cornyn’s Speech at CPAC

“Thank you all for being here this morning – especially all the conservatives who are visiting the nation’s capitol from around the country. As you can see, change has indeed come to Washington.

You can see change as you ride around the public transportation system: where it’s now more crowded under the bus than inside it.

You can see change if you stroll by the Internal Revenue Service: where it’s now patriotic to pay your taxes – unless of course you serve in the Cabinet.

And just this week, Democrats have tried to change the District of Columbia to the State of Columbia – with its own representative in Congress and maybe someday two Senators too.

But one thing will never change. The elites in Washington and the media will continue to portray conservatives as out of touch, out of fashion, and out of luck.

And one more thing that hasn’t changed: they are wrong.

Following the “thumpin'” we received in the last election, the conservative movement is regrouping… reorganizing… and renewing itself.

And we’re bringing forth new leaders to restore America’s strength and prosperity – and to defend our enduring values.

Conservatives have been in the wilderness before – and as before, we can begin the work of dusting ourselves off here at CPAC.

Back in 1977, after Democrats had taken control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Ronald Reagan came to CPAC – and reminded us that America’s values had not changed.

He said: “We who are proud to call ourselves “conservative” are not a minority of a minority party; we are part of the great majority of Americans of both major parties and of most of the independents as well.”

Four years later, Ronald Reagan would address CPAC as President of the United States. And soon after that, America began its longest economic expansion since the Great Depression, and the Soviet Union was on its way to the ash heap of history.

As President Reagan was beginning his second term, I first ran for public office. Back then, Texas was a one-party state – the Democratic Party. They held a stranglehold on state and local government – and, perhaps unsurprisingly, corruption was a serious problem.

Despite the odds, a few of us decided to buck the system and run.

We ran as Republicans. More importantly, we ran as reformers. And we won.

Since then I’ve served in all three branches of government: as a judge, as an Attorney General, and now as a Senator representing my beloved Texas.

As a conservative, I haven’t won every battle. As a conservative, I’ve had to keep learning how to apply our principles to new challenges. But as a conservative, I’ve found that when you stand on principle – consistently – you can earn the public trust – and the respect of your adversaries – and good things can happen.

I still believe that good things can happen. Following his primary defeat in 1976, Ronald Reagan quoted an Irish ballad, and said: “I will lay me down and bleed a while. Though I am wounded, I am not slain. I shall rise and fight again.”

I believe as conservatives we’ve spent enough time bleeding. Now it’s time to rise and get back in the fight. We must choose our battles wisely. We must respect our new President and his enormous popularity. But it’s time to fight back.

That’s why I agreed to take on the responsibilities of Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s becoming increasing lonely in the Republican caucus. When I arrived in Washington a mere six years ago, I was one of 55 Republican Senators. Today, there are 41. If we don’t turn this around, then soon we’ll be able to rent out the Republican cloakroom, and just meet on the elevator.

You all understand what having 41 Senators means. It means we barely have the votes to deny cloture in the Senate – even if we get unanimous support of our caucus – no easy task depending on the issue. It means our leverage in negotiations to amend and improve legislation is greatly reduced.

It means Republicans are only one vote away from giving Harry Reid the same freedom of action in the Senate that Nancy Pelosi has in the House.

So our mission is clear: we must win more Republican seats… we must build a new majority… and in the process, we must regain the trust of the American people.

Our first task is to support Norm Coleman in Minnesota.

Norm is a good man. He’s a leader that Minnesotans can be proud of.

The Democrats are up to their old tricks in Minnesota. The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes now has Ten Thousand lawyers trying to steal this election for Al Franken.

I believe that Norm has a real shot to pull this thing out. I’m still calling him “Number 42.” We will continue to support Norm Coleman – and I urge all of you to do so as well.

Our second task is be honest with ourselves about why we lost so many seats these last two cycles. I believe it boils down to this: we lost the trust of the American people.

A post-election poll sums up the story. When asked which party sticks to their principles more often, only 37 percent said the Republican Party, while 44 percent said the Democratic Party.

The good news is our conservative principles weren’t the problem. According to that same survey, 69 percent of the American people described themselves as fiscal conservatives – while only 27 percent said they were liberals on issues like taxes and spending.

And 53 percent described themselves as social conservatives – compared to the 40 percent who say they are liberals on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

Democrats understand these numbers too. That’s why they recruited a Junior Senator from Pennsylvania who is pro-life, and why the Junior Senator from New York sleeps with guns under her bed.

That’s why candidate Obama promised tax cuts for 95 percent of the American people – and promised it so often that by the end of the campaign – as amazing as this sounds – more voters thought he would be a better bet to keep taxes low than John McCain.

So the message sent by the voters seems clear to me. The American people will support us if we stick to our principles – and they will abandon us if we don’t.

To reclaim our party’s identity we must demonstrate our principles in respectful opposition.

Principled opposition means supporting the idea of a stimulus bill when it’s promised to be timely, targeted, and temporary – and opposing it when it’s not.

Principled opposition means supporting the Administration when it pledges greater transparency in government – and exposing their hypocrisy when their rhetoric doesn’t match reality.

And principled opposition means reading the fine print on what the Democrats are actually doing – and explaining to the American people what they are trying to get away with.

One example of reading the fine print is drawing attention to what I call the “bailouts for trial lawyers” that Democrats are moving through Congress.

Trial lawyers have given big money to Democrats, and they seem to be getting their money’s worth. In the stimulus bill… in the so-called Lillie Ledbetter Act… and in other legislation moving through Congress, the Democrats are encouraging more litigation, and creating more uncertainty in the work place. The last thing our businesses need to worry about in a recession is the threat of more lawsuits, but that’s exactly what the Democrats are trying to do.

We must read the fine print, and help the American people understand what it means. The simple truth is that millions of people who voted for this President did not think that “bailouts for trial lawyers” was what they voted for.

Our task is to show them what’s really going on, so that before long they will be saying, “This is not what we bargained for.”

The fourth thing we need to do is recruit quality candidates to run as Republicans in 2010.

Right now, I see the landscape as very promising. There are some incumbent seats that we must defend and open seats that we must hold, like in Ohio, Missouri and Florida. But we may also have opportunities in some unexpected places: New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, and California.

Ninety percent of the game is to recruit candidates who can communicate our principles, who work hard, and who can connect with voters in their states. And the NRSC can offer strong candidates the tools and resources they need to win.

Now, not all of these candidates are going to hold conservative positions on every issue. It’s critical that our candidates “fit” their states if they are going to win.

But there’s no contradiction between being principled and pragmatic. I’m proud of the fact that I have the fourth most conservative record in the Senate. But if given the choice between a more moderate Republican – who will vote with me 80 percent of the time – or a liberal Democrat, who will vote with me zero percent of the time – sign me up for supporting the Republican.

I understand when people are occasionally frustrated with the way some of my colleagues vote. I am too. But a circular firing squad within our party is no solution.

Remember that Ronald Reagan was able to accomplish a great deal with a Republican Caucus that was far less conservative than the one we have today – because Republicans had the majority in the Senate.

When today’s Republicans recapture the majority, we will be able control the agenda… keep the worst liberal ideas from ever reaching the floor… and limit the chances of division within our ranks.

So we must put blue and purple states in play. We must be a national party. We must run candidates that can win in every region of the country.

This brings me to my final point. We must broaden our party, and increase our appeal among groups that share our values, but don’t necessarily identify as conservatives or vote consistently as Republicans.

Some of these folks are Independents. Some are young people. Many are Hispanics, African-Americans, or members of other ethnic and religious communities.

Reaching out to these groups doesn’t mean apologizing for our principles, or watering them down. It doesn’t mean saying “Yes, But Less” to every liberal initiative.

Above all, this doesn’t mean playing the game of identity politics. Conservatives must resist the poisonous liberal notion that political convictions come from your race or class – instead of your head and your heart.

Reaching out does mean getting out there and meeting with these folks, and hearing what they have to say – not just at election time, but all the time. As Woody Allen said, “80 percent of success is showing up.”

There are lots of ways to put “showing up” into practice. Some of these ways involve new technologies, and new networking capabilities. But sometimes “showing up” just means doing it the old-fashioned way, and sitting down with folks face-to-face.

Here’s an example: last November, I won 36 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas. I wish that number were higher – but I’m proud that we got it that high.

After all, it was a tough election cycle for Republicans. 36 percent was actually 5 points better than Senator McCain did with Hispanics nationwide. I had a Hispanic opponent.

And despite broad Hispanic support for the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, I had major reservations about it, and in the end I voted no.

Nevertheless, a good number of Hispanics supported me last year, for one simple reason: we took the time to build relationships in the Hispanic community… hear what they had to say… and respond to many of their concerns.

As we’ve build these relationships, we’ve discovered that Hispanics are among the most conservative voters in the nation on many issues.

Many Hispanics own small businesses, so they respond to our economic message of lower taxes and sensible regulation.

Many Hispanics are social conservatives, and believe in traditional marriage and the sanctity of life.

And many Hispanics appreciate that Republicans stand up for them on foreign policy. We reject demagogues like Hugo Chavez… we support reformers like President Calderon of Mexico and President Uribe of Colombia… and we work to expand trade throughout our hemisphere.

The false liberal narrative is that conservatives want to push people out of our movement. The truth is that our principles, correctly explained, can draw people in.

It has been a tough year for conservatives, no question – as many people predicted here at CPAC a year ago.

Yet as our dear friend Tony Snow reminded us then, when one Act of our drama ends, another is sure to begin.

“This is our moment,” Tony said. “This is the time to do what we do best – turn adversity into strength. We are not about to walk back from the high ideals and grand accomplishments we have achieved over the last generation.”

Ronald Reagan, Tony Snow, and so many others who inspired us are gone – but the principles that inspired them are still with us. The cause they lived for lives on.

We who gather here at CPAC are some of those who will carry the conservative banner forward. Others will join us from every state in the land. And together, we will earn back the support of the American people, and create a new era of opportunity.